A short drive from my house lies 2 significant features. Signal Hill, the highest point in the city, looks far out over the North Atlantic. It was from here that Marconi received the first wireless trans-Atlantic cable. The other location is Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land in North America. One thing is for sure, if Newfoundland is not the edge of the world, you can see it from here.

03 March 2013

How to Destroy the Senate

“For the Senate must change.And we
intend to make change happen.”

– Stephen Harper, address to Senate, 7 September
2006

The Senate has long posed a problem for Government and for Canadians.Here we have an unelected body, with long
terms, and pensions after, that appears to serve no real purpose other than to
rubber stamp legislation.What use is
it?

In many situations – particularly when there is minority
government – the Senate doesn’t readily appear to do anything.(During minority governments, bills have
generally been debated and amended extensively before reaching the Senate and
are usually well-thought-out or at least consensus-building.)The point of the Senate is to be “the chamber
of sober second thought” – its purpose is to review legislation while taking
the long-view, looking past the next election, seeing the impact of these
changes on Canada over the next 10, 20, 50 years.It needs to be appointed so that Senators
will not be distracted by running for election, or indeed, party politics, but
can stay focused on their role as protectors of the future.That role becomes even more crucial when
there is majority government.

Majority government can legally do whatever it wants.Opposition cannot block legislation or
enforce changes.Nor can they bring
about the fall of government except, perhaps, in the most extreme circumstances
and/or if they somehow manage to get government MPs on their side.Otherwise, the Government can pass any law it
wishes.

Who protects the people in such circumstances?Should a majority government pass a law which
the whole of the public hates, who stands up for the people?

The Senate.

The Senate has the ability to refuse to ratify any
legislation, to keep sending it back to the Commons for debate, effectively
stalling the bill until it dies.The
Senate can do the same with the budget – keep sending it back for debate.If that is done repeatedly, if the Government
cannot get its budget passed, that triggers a confidence crisis and an
election.In other words, the Senate
serves as the safeguard of democracy and the protector of the public.

Which is why Stephen Harper hates it.

For years, Harper lobbied for Senate Reform, for limitations
on its power, for changes to how Senators get their seats, even for abolition
of the Senate.He was vocal, pointed,
and attacked the Senate at every opportunity.Especially when he led a minority Government and had problems getting
legislation through the Senate; or, worse, when the Opposition got its own
bills passed.He famously attacked the
Senate for being an unelected body interfering with the elected
government.He painted them as
undemocratic.

Then he got a majority government.Many people thought that would be the end of
the Senate.Except Harper faces one
problem: the Commons cannot abolish the Senate.In fact, the Commons cannot do much other than bad-mouth them to the
media.Because the Senate represents
half of our system of government and we cannot have one part abolishing the
other.It’s illegal.Which is why Senate reform suddenly disappeared
from Harper’s agenda.

What confuses many is why Harper, who hates the Senate so
much, should be appointing so many Senators. Why is he defending the ones who are misusing
public funds?Why should he care at all?

Simple:Harper wants the Senate gone.He can’t get rid of it himself.So he has to make the public demand its dissolution.

How would you do that?If you wanted to eliminate the final opposition to total control of
Canada, and you needed the public to do it, how would you bring it about?

First, you might appoint devoted followers and yes-people to the Senate so that,
no matter what, your bills would be rubber stamped.This would be a good way of showing how
ineffective the Senate is: effectively removing the Senates ability to be
independent.

And you might not care about the quality of your
appointees.In fact, it might be more
useful if you appointed unqualified people, people with issues, people who would
abuse the system, who might cause public scandal, or simply say asinine
things.After all, nothing turns the
citizens quicker than an endless string of headlines about Senators misbehaving
or being stupid.

Then you might want to leak some information to the press
about how expensive the Senate is, about how some Senators are claiming
expenses for things they don’t need, about how the rules permit this.Trust the media to do all the digging and
pull up the facts you know are there – after all, you appointed people to behave
that way.

You might leak info on Senators who are fighting Alzheimer’s
disease, or cancer, or addiction – enough for the scandal-press to start
questioning the competence of these individuals.Enough to show that Senators cannot be
removed by the public, even if they are incapable of doing their jobs.

Then you might publicly defend the Senate, or particular
Senators.You give sound bites about how
they are following the rules, how it is the rules that might be the issue, how
it is the un-elected process of appointment that keeps the Senate unaccountable.After all, you don’t want to appear like you
are against Canada’s system of government.You want the public to reach its own conclusion, despite your leading
them by the nose.

So you keep up that charade: appearing to support the system while, at the same
time, working in the background to shred it.You appoint more and more Senators, until the upper chamber is bloated
beyond belief.You slip more dirty
information to the media.Perhaps you
even have some of your Senators fall on their swords, abuse residency status or
expenses, knowing that they will be rewarded later with board appointments to
multi-million-dollar corporations or, at least, with a nice Senate retirement
package.You keep up the front while
tearing out the back and increasing public outrage.

Until, eventually, the public cannot remember what the
Senate was for, and can only recall headline after headline about Senators
behaving badly.When the public is ready
and demanding action, only then will you have YOUR senators, the ones YOU
control, stand up in their seats and move that the Senate be abolished.Your Senators will vote the entire body out
of existence, at the demand of the people.While you, apparently, had nothing to do with it.

That will remove the one thing that stands in your way.The one body which had the ability to bring
you to heel.With a majority government
and no Senate, you can now rule Canada with an iron fist and the citizens
cannot object, interfere, or stop you.You will be the democratically elected tyrant.

Stephen Harper may be many things.But he’s not stupid.

“But the only way you end up with more comprehensive reform is if you
destabilize the status quo to the point where Canadians say, ‘This is a mess,
and we’ve got to sort this out.’ ” - Roger Gibbins, professor emeritus at the University
of Calgary, MacLeans, 7 October 2011

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About Me

Jeff Rose-Martland is an award-winning authorand playwright living in St. John's, Newfoundland. He finds time to write in between raising his son, running a household, and infrequent stints in various bill-paying careers.-----------------------------------------------------------------------Shortlisted for the 2010 CBC Literary Awards.